Yeah, but it's a stupid metric. Would you rather have a defense that gives up 14 points and 500 yards per game, or one that gives up 20 points and 300 yards per game? Obviously, points allowed is the be-all, end-all metric when it comes to ranking a defense. There are a lot of sub-stats that go into that, obviously, but the score trumps all. No matter what.

Yeah, but it's a stupid metric. Would you rather have a defense that gives up 14 points and 500 yards per game, or one that gives up 20 points and 300 yards per game? Obviously, points allowed is the be-all, end-all metric when it comes to ranking a defense. There are a lot of sub-stats that go into that, obviously, but the score trumps all. No matter what.

Offenses don't score all a teams points, defenses don't give up all a teams points.The league ranks by yards for a reason.

Just for the fun of it, how can Red Bryant or Bobby Wagner tackle a guy on a Wilson Pick-6 or Jon Ryan safety?Defenses are judged when defenses are on the field.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but even if you go by points, isn't our defense #1? The points allowed stats include the pick-6 points and special teams points, if you go with strictly points scored against defensive units, I believe the Hawks took the #1 spot after tonight's MNF game.

It's always annoyed me that the NFL includes pick-6 touchdowns and safeties under the "defensive points allowed" column. I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me that there should be a column somewhere for actual points allowed by the defense. I haven't found a source that does that, but PFR does have a table breaking down how all points were scored against every team. After a bit of spreadsheet tinkering, I got my personal favorite defense stat, Defensive Points Allowed per Game:

That doesn't include monday night. The Texans defense only gave up 10 points, so they stay on top this week. The NFC West is ridiculously stout. Frankly, we all benefit a little from having played each other's offenses. If it was that big of a help, though, GB and WAS wouldn't be sitting near the bottom.

Not just that but how can you fault a defense for giving up points on a FG when their QB throws an INT deep in their territory like Wilson did against the Rams. Also, allowing a 59 and 60 yard FG to the Rams kicker inflates our scoring D as well. A 59 and 60 yarder is not what I call FG range.

gtcotcakya wrote:Granted. Yards don't win football games though, so to me the points allowed is the more important stat.

who has SF played?

I can take your question several different ways, not sure how you actually meant it.

The trivial answer is Packers, Lions, Vikings, Jets and Bills.

If I infer that your unsaid point is that SF has played lesser opponents and thus the relative rankings are incorrect, I won't disagree with you. Obviously (and as many here have already pointed out), the stats referred to are not the whole story. However, I do think that it's the best indicator presently available until the updated DVOA is released later today.

When that happens I fully expect to see the NFC West fully represented in the top ten, and perhaps three of the four in the top five (last week SF, SEA, and AZ were ranked 4, 5, and 6 respectively, and ironically STL was ranked 9th).

Yeah, but it's a stupid metric. Would you rather have a defense that gives up 14 points and 500 yards per game, or one that gives up 20 points and 300 yards per game? Obviously, points allowed is the be-all, end-all metric when it comes to ranking a defense. There are a lot of sub-stats that go into that, obviously, but the score trumps all. No matter what.

The only problem with the Points allowed, is there is no differentiating defensive points allowed vs. Special teams points (such as punt returns/ Kickoff returns for TD's, blocked punts for TD's, ect.

Nor do they seperate- pick 6/ fumble returns for TD's which again aren't defensive points allowed. Our number are more impressive when you subtract out the pick 6, and the safety from last week. You could also probably include the special teams TD throw.

But I agree the points are all that matters. Who cares if we give up a to of yards as long as we keep them from scoring.